NEW YORK – ECOKIDS, a project of SEA (Social Environmental Aesthetics), is an exhibition that showcases the work of outstanding youth activists who are working to raise awareness and solve environmental issues.ECOKIDS demonstrates that youth movements are leading the call for positive action on environmental challenges.

From student-run organic farms to climate change awareness campaigns, the youth organizations featured in ECOKIDS are based in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Tennessee, California, Florida, Massachusetts, Costa Rica, Germany, Canada and Indonesia. Through the exhibition, workshops and partnerships with school groups and teaching artists, Exit Art provides a public platform for the presentation of youth environmental organizations, projects, and initiatives. Founded by youth activists from elementary to high school age, these “eco-kids” demonstrate that children have the ability to solve environmental issues in the present, andnot simply the future.

Workshops, events and tours will be hosted by The Canary Project, Wave Hill, and Solar 1.

PUBLIC EVENTS FOR KIDS

GREEN PATRIOT POSTERS: Citizen Youth Design Camp NYC
Saturdays, October 2, 9 and 16 / 2-5pm
Organized by The Canary Project
with collaborations by Tara DePorte/Lower East Side Ecology Center and the Intrepid Museum
Age: High School
FREE

GREEN PATRIOT POSTERS: Citizen Youth Design Camp NYC is connected to The Canary Project’s ongoing Green Patriot Posters concept – a campaign centered on posters that encourage citizens to take part in building a sustainable economy. In this camp, youth participants will learn about cities and sustainability from guest speakers; learn how to design and create posters; and design a campaign to get their posters and message out into the world. The posters produced by youth participants will then be included in the exhibition ECOKIDS. For more information on this program, please contact Assistant Curator Lauren Rosati atlauren@exitart.org.

The Canary Project (Ed Morris and Susannah Sayler) has commissioned posters from design leaders as part of Green Patriot Posters, and developed an on-line community for sharing and voting on original designs. The project is being featured in the Cooper Hewitt National Design Triennial Why Design Now?, and will be published in a book by Metropolis/DAP in Fall 2010. For more information on the Green Patriot Poster project, please click here.

The Sustainable Design class will familiarize students with concepts related to architecture, community planning, and product design. Students will explore the environmental consequences and benefits of design on all scales and how it affects the environment and our health. Using recycled materials, each student will design and construct a small, sustainable building. At the end of the workshop, the students will draw a map of the city and choose a place to “build.”

Parents will be able to sign up for this program beginning September 1, 2010. To sign up, please visitwww.exitart.org. For more information on this program, please contact Assistant Curator Lauren Rosati atlauren@exitart.org.

ABOUT EXIT ART
Exit Art is an independent vision of contemporary culture. We are prepared to react immediately to important issues that affect our lives. We do experimental, historical and unique presentations of aesthetic, social, political and environmental issues. We absorb cultural differences that become prototype exhibitions. We are a center for multiple disciplines. Exit Art is a 28-year-old cultural center in New York City founded by Directors Jeanette Ingberman and artist Papo Colo, that has grown from a pioneering alternative art space, into a model artistic center for the 21st century committed to supporting artists whose quality of work reflects the transformations of our culture. Exit Art is internationally recognized for its unmatched spirit of inventiveness and consistent ability to anticipate the newest trends in the culture. With a substantial reputation for curatorial innovation and depth of programming in diverse media, Exit Art is always changing.

ABOUT SEASEA is a unique endeavor that presents a diverse multimedia exhibition program and permanent archive of artworks that address social and environmental concerns. SEA will assemble artists, activists, scientists and scholars to address environmental issues through presentations of visual art, performances, panels and lecture series that will communicate international activities concerning environmental and social activism. SEA will occupy a permanent space in Exit Underground, a 3000 square-foot, multi-media performance, film and exhibition venue underneath Exit Art’s main gallery space. The SEA archive will be a permanent archive of information, images and videos that will be a continuous source for upcoming exhibitions and projects. Central to SEA’s mission is to provide a vehicle through which the public can be made aware of socially- and environmentally-engaged work, and to provide a fo rum for collaboration between artists, scientists, activists, scholars and the public. SEA functions as an initiative where individuals can join together in dialogue about issues that affect our daily lives. SEA conceived by Papo Colo.

EXHIBITION SUPPORTGeneral exhibition support provided by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; Bloomberg LP; Jerome Foundation; Lambent Foundation; Pollock-Krasner Foundation; the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn; Exit Art’s Board of Directors and our members.